Hello! So I'm sorry to say, but I'm going to have to split my trip up into at least 3 episodes. There is just too much to write and show! The bolded sections below are what this post covers.
Day 1: Flew into Geneva, train to Bern then Interlaken then Grindelwald. Explored Grindelwald and camped.
Day 2: Day Hike to Oberer Grindelwaldgletscher (Upper Grindelwald Glacier) and around the Grindelwald First area. Train to Lauterbrunnen, bus to Strechelberg and camped.
Day 3: Gondola to Gimmelwald, Backpacked over Sefinenfurgge Pass and Hohturli Pass, camped at Oeschinensee (see is a word for lake or body of water apparently).
Day 4: Finished backpacking to Kandersteg, train to Visp and then Zermatt, Gondola to the Matterhorn, train back to Visp and then Lausanne, train to Geneva. Stayed in hostel.
Day 5: Geneva, fly back to London.
For those of you that haven't seen them, I have 4 videos from this trip that all take place during day 3 and highlight the sights that I saw during my backpacking adventure. To view the videos, click here: http://www.youtube.com/bribergey
You can also view pics from this post here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bbergey/SwitzerlandEpisode2
So my previous post left you when I was hiking through the small mountain village of Grimmelwald on the morning of day 3. The first part of day 3 was absolutely beautiful. Most of the peaks had clouds around them, but they broke free enough to provide excellent views of Jungfrau, the Eiger, and many others. This day was by far the highlight of my entire trip and I am still blown away by everything I saw over the hike. Unfortunatley, I pushed myself way too hard. In what took me basically 10 hours in one day, should have been done in two days. I think I forgot that I had read that and figured I could get it all done.
The climb from Grimmelwald to the first pass was amazing. There was a hut situated about 2/3rds the way up that sat in an amazing alpine valley overlooking all the nearby peaks. The climb from there was even more amazing. Most of the pics that show any type of sunshine or broken clouds came from this section of the trail. The summit to the pass was quite steep and vigorous, but I was pretty excited and determined to reach my first Alp pass and pushed on. The closer I got to the pass, the cloudier it got and by the time I reached the top I was pretty much in the cloud. I snapped a couple pics of Buzz and I and kept moving since it got pretty chilly. The trail split at the pass and my trail actually kept climing a few hundred more yards.
The entire next section of the trail is basically a blur, mostly because I was in the clouds the entire time. The landscape was very rugged. It was entirely made of rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. There were still some rather large snow patches, some of which the trail crossed. One of these, seen in the pics, was quite steep and pretty dangerous. If I had slipped I would have slid several hundred feet down the patch. At one point the trail had a metal ladder bolted into a cliff since there was no other way down. I finally made my way down far enough to have the clouds above me with at least a view of what was below.
I eventually made my way down to Gamchigletscher. It was quite exciting because I saw on the map that it looked like the trail actually crossed the glacier, so I was anxious to see what it would be like. Sure enough, there was a massive glacier that cut through the high canyon and the trail crossed the canyon. The glacier, which was clearly melting off, started high above in the peaks that were covered in clouds. The trail crossed along the bottom and the toe of the glacier, which is the very end where you can see the meltoff running down the canyon into the valleys below. Although the majority of the trail crossed large beds of rock and debris the melting glacier has carried and left, I was still very close to sections of deep, blue pools and areas where the snow/glacier still existed. At the bottom, or the toe, of the glacier, water fled from numerous tunnels and cracks within the glacier itself into deep narrow gorges down into the lower valleys. It was quite a site to see and crossing the two bridges over the very deep narrow gorges was pretty scary!
After crossing the glacier, the trail then made it's way up and down a few times on it's way to the 2nd pass, Hohturli Pass. This is the highest pass along the High Alpine Trail in the Swiss Alps and frankly I was too tired to do it. But once I started I had no choice. The clouds again quickly surrounded me and I slowly made my way straight up a very steep mountainside. I was so exhausted and had absolutely no views and I honestly don't remember a lot about the ascent. By this time I had developed a rather considerable blister on my left heel. There were a lot of rocks and near the top there were many steps leading up the extremely steep mountainside along with many cables and chains bolted into the cliffsides to help hikers on their way up. I finally reached the summit at 7pm, took a few pics and a video, and started my way down.
My plan had been to camp near the top of the other side of the summit, but there was really no good place to do so. I ended up hiking 2 more hours all the way down to Oeschinensee, a lake that is accessed by a chairlift or hiking trails above the village of Kandersteg. It was a beautiful lake and I was so happy when I finally arrived. Numerous waterfalls tumbled down the mountains that surrounded the lake and the lake itself was a pristine blue/green color. I set up my tent in what I think was a day-use area site far too small for my tent, cooked 2 dinners and ate them both, and went to sleep.
The next morning I felt much better, but the blister on my heel suggested that instead of hiking down 2 hours down to Kandersteg, I should try and take the 15 minute chairlift ride. Unfortunatley I was 1 swiss franc short of the fee, but when I tried to explain that to the German operator he let me go anyway. I think he just charged me the child price. After arriving in town I had just enough time to take a few pics of the village, visit a couple outdoor stores, and get some fruit and orange juice at a grocery store before catching the train. Since I had the whole day left, I decided to head over the mountains and go visit Zermatt and the Matterhorn which I had wanted to do when planning my trip but thought I wouldn't have enough time. The train stopped in the town of Visp on the way and I spent an hour walking around the town and visiting some shops. I then boarded the next train and made my way up to the automobile-free resort town of Zermatt.
To be continued...
7.31.2008
7.27.2008
Switzerland Episode 1 - Interlaken, Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Gimmelwald, and Day Hike to Ober Grindelwaldgletscher
Greetings! In an attempt to make my Switzerland trip easier to handle, I'm going to split it up into different posts. Otherwise it would be a full novel (no joke) and include too many pictures for the human eye to fathom at once. So here was my trip itinerary with this post's details in bold:
Day 1: Flew into Geneva, train to Bern then Interlaken then Grindelwald. Explored Grindelwald and camped.
Day 2: Day Hike to Oberer Grindelwaldgletscher (Upper Grindelwald Glacier) and around the Grindelwald First area. Train to Lauterbrunnen, bus to Strechelberg and camped.
Day 3: Gondola to Gimmelwald, Backpacked over Sefinenfurgge Pass and Hohturli Pass, camped at Oeschinensee (see is a word for lake or body of water apparently).
Day 4: Finished backpacking to Kandersteg, train to Visp and then Zermatt, Gondola to the Matterhorn, train back to Visp and then Lausanne, train to Geneva. Stayed in hostel.
Day 5: Geneva, fly back to London.
Pics from this portion of the trip are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bbergey/SwitzerlandEpisode1
So Day 1 started at 4:30am when I had to get up to take the tube to the airport shuttle stop for an hour ride to Gatwick airport. I flew Easyjet, a discount airline in the UK/Europe. I booked my flight the same week and it was just over 100pounds. Normally a flight like this would be around 50pounds if you book it with notice. After landing in Geneva, I went through customs which I found very odd. The officer looked at my passport for about .5 seconds, gave it back without a stamp, and let me through. I guess they don't really care too much about who comes and goes in Switzerland. I then boarded the train to get to the main Geneva train station. However, since the train I got on continued up to Bern and I knew I could get where I needed to go from there, I just stayed on all the way to Bern. I had purchased a 4 day rail pass by mail before I left which proved to be extremely helpful during my trip. After switching trains in Bern, I got off and spent a couple hours in Interlaken. Interlaken was extremely touristy yet very beautiful. It's a popular hub to access the Jungfrau region of the alps which include well-known peaks such as Jungfrau, Eiger, Wetterhorn and Monch, among literally dozens and dozens of others. All of the rivers heading down from the mountains, and the lakes surrounding Interlaken, were cloudy and a very deep turquoise, showing that it is pure glacier runoff. I then boarded my final train up one of the canyon valleys to the town of Grindelwald.
I should give some background on the country of Switzerland. It's a very small country bordered by France, Germany, and Italy. (and Leichestien, but that doesn't really count). Geneva and the southern parts are very French. It looks French and everyone speaks French. However, not more than a two hours train ride north and everything is German. All of the small mountain villages, like Grindelwald, were German. I was amazed how my two years of German in high school still proved useful! Although everyone did speak English, it was really helpful getting around the train stations, bus stops, road signs, etc.
Grindelwald is also touristy, but amazingly beautiful. I would compare Interlaken to Boulder and Grindelwald to Estes Park in Colorado. But both had even better scenery and views. Grindelwald is one of those towns I immediately fell in love with. I spent a lot of my time there thinking how I would love to learn to speak fluent German and move there, be a ski bum, and enjoy the great summers hiking. I had planned to spend day two hiking from Grindelwald over to Lauterbrunnen which sits in the next valley south through the mountains. In reality, Grindelwald is a rather large ski resort and there were gondolas and chair lifts that basically could have got me to the same place. So instead I decided to spend my day hiking in a more remote area not accessed by any kind of transportation. I also decided my pack was far too heavy to carry with me at this point. It had all of my camping gear (tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, stove and fuel, water filter, food for 4ish days, clothes and other misc. gear) and basically the food just made it too heavy. So I left most everything at camp and packed my pack with only necessary items for the day.
I started walking up the valley wall toward a small peak that I decided would be my destination for the day (it was steep but def. hikeable), but on my way I noticed a small trail that hugged the side of a cliff and then went into a broad canyon toward the top. The map I purchased labeled it as an alpine trail, meaning you needed special equipment (climbing or ice gear), but it looked do-able so I decided to give it a go. The trail was pretty crazy at spots; chains and cables were often bolted into the cliffside so you could hold on to it while you walked across the trail which at times may have only been a couple feet wide before dropping several hundred feet (and prob in some cases thousands) to the valley floor. Sorry mom, just ignore that part. At one point the trail actually went under/behind a waterfall because it had no where else to go! But all in all it was difficult but plenty safe without any gear.
As I started getting near the "top" and into the canyon, the landscape revealed a huge glacier funneling from the top of the peaks down through the canyon. It was like a huge frozen river carving it's way down. Huge waterfalls fell hundreds and hundreds of feet from the canyon walls down into the glacier, and you could see the deep ravines with hues of dark blue in the glacier itself. At one point, I heard what sounded like booming thunder that lasted much longer than I expected. After looking closely at the glacier, I saw tons of tumbling glacier that had broken off and was falling down the glacier. Throughout the day I witnessed this happening a few times, pretty crazy! The further and further I went into the canyon, the higher I got and the more the walls opened up. It was utterly amazing. At times I could turn around and look down thousands of feet at the now small village of Grindelwald. The trail actually led to a hikers hut, situated at 2529 meters (8297 feet) overlooking the glaciers and all the peaks (between 11,000 and 13,000 feet). It was about as high as you could possibly go in the area without climbing ice and cliffs. These huts are very common in the alps. I have no idea how they get all of the food and stuff to them, it must be by helicopter in most cases (I did notice some cables that went to some of the lower/closer huts).
Overall, the entire hike was absolutely beautiful and obviously I couldn't stop taking pictures. I was also amazed how few people I saw considering Grimmelwald sat so close (I hiked from the campsite/center of town). After going back down the trail, I decided to hike up toward where I was going to hike in the first place. I knew I would eventually hit a gondola which I received a 50% discount by using my rail pass. So when I did reach the gondola a couple hours later, I decided to cheat a bit and take it as high as it goes. The highest point it takes you too in called First. I'm not really sure why, but I guess the skiing is decent. Looking at the ski maps, however, there are only a few trails on this entire side of the valley and it seems like it would get quite boring pretty fast. My goal was to then hike to Bachsee (lake) which I had seen on many postcards in town, but it actually started raining and got suddenly cold, so I decided my day had been long enough. I spent some time on top before taking the gondola back down into town. Even the gondola ride was amazing though, and passed an amazing waterfall on it's way.
It was about 6pm, but I thought it best to pack up my stuff and take the train over to Lauterbrunnen so I could start my big hike as early as possible the next day. Once I arrived in Lauterbrunnen, I was blown away with what I saw. The village sits in a much narrower valley towered by massive peaks and a huge waterfall falling from the cliffs above down into town. It was absolutely amazing. I took the bus a couple miles to the end of the road to a very small town of Strechelberg where I camped for the night. It rained off and on during my train journey and that night, but it wasn't that big of a deal. The clouds did hide a lot of the upper peaks though which would have been nice to see more. It was nice staying at campgrounds the first couple nights because it meant I had warm water and real bathrooms with civilization nearby.
In the morning I was faced with the decision to hike over 2 hours up the valley wall to the small village of Gimmelwald where my backpacking journey really started, or take a scenic gondola to the top for free with my rail pass. I decided to take the gondola. :-) I had also eaten enough food at this point to make my pack weight manageable.
I had my route planned for what I thought would be the best part of the next two days. It was to hike from Gimmelwald two valleys south to the town of Kandersteg where I could catch the train back to Geneva. It went over the two highest passes (completely hikeable and glacier free this time of year) along the High Alpine Route of the alps. I figured I would hike both passes, find a place to camp near the top of the 2nd pass, and finish the hike to Kandersteg the next morning/afternoon.
I got to Gimmelwald and started my hike around 10am. Gimmelwald is another amazing place and sits much higher and closer to the peaks than all of the other towns I had been through. However, it is obviously not very accessible and thinking back, I don't think there were any cars in the village at all. In the pics, you'll see the massive peaks surrounding the region, including Jungfrau and the Eiger.
To be continued...
However, I do want to hear what you want to know about! When I write these posts, I leave so much out in the interest of space. So if there is stuff you want to know, just ask! I'll be happy to let you know or include the details in my posts. Thanks!
Day 1: Flew into Geneva, train to Bern then Interlaken then Grindelwald. Explored Grindelwald and camped.
Day 2: Day Hike to Oberer Grindelwaldgletscher (Upper Grindelwald Glacier) and around the Grindelwald First area. Train to Lauterbrunnen, bus to Strechelberg and camped.
Day 3: Gondola to Gimmelwald, Backpacked over Sefinenfurgge Pass and Hohturli Pass, camped at Oeschinensee (see is a word for lake or body of water apparently).
Day 4: Finished backpacking to Kandersteg, train to Visp and then Zermatt, Gondola to the Matterhorn, train back to Visp and then Lausanne, train to Geneva. Stayed in hostel.
Day 5: Geneva, fly back to London.
Pics from this portion of the trip are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bbergey/SwitzerlandEpisode1
So Day 1 started at 4:30am when I had to get up to take the tube to the airport shuttle stop for an hour ride to Gatwick airport. I flew Easyjet, a discount airline in the UK/Europe. I booked my flight the same week and it was just over 100pounds. Normally a flight like this would be around 50pounds if you book it with notice. After landing in Geneva, I went through customs which I found very odd. The officer looked at my passport for about .5 seconds, gave it back without a stamp, and let me through. I guess they don't really care too much about who comes and goes in Switzerland. I then boarded the train to get to the main Geneva train station. However, since the train I got on continued up to Bern and I knew I could get where I needed to go from there, I just stayed on all the way to Bern. I had purchased a 4 day rail pass by mail before I left which proved to be extremely helpful during my trip. After switching trains in Bern, I got off and spent a couple hours in Interlaken. Interlaken was extremely touristy yet very beautiful. It's a popular hub to access the Jungfrau region of the alps which include well-known peaks such as Jungfrau, Eiger, Wetterhorn and Monch, among literally dozens and dozens of others. All of the rivers heading down from the mountains, and the lakes surrounding Interlaken, were cloudy and a very deep turquoise, showing that it is pure glacier runoff. I then boarded my final train up one of the canyon valleys to the town of Grindelwald.
I should give some background on the country of Switzerland. It's a very small country bordered by France, Germany, and Italy. (and Leichestien, but that doesn't really count). Geneva and the southern parts are very French. It looks French and everyone speaks French. However, not more than a two hours train ride north and everything is German. All of the small mountain villages, like Grindelwald, were German. I was amazed how my two years of German in high school still proved useful! Although everyone did speak English, it was really helpful getting around the train stations, bus stops, road signs, etc.
Grindelwald is also touristy, but amazingly beautiful. I would compare Interlaken to Boulder and Grindelwald to Estes Park in Colorado. But both had even better scenery and views. Grindelwald is one of those towns I immediately fell in love with. I spent a lot of my time there thinking how I would love to learn to speak fluent German and move there, be a ski bum, and enjoy the great summers hiking. I had planned to spend day two hiking from Grindelwald over to Lauterbrunnen which sits in the next valley south through the mountains. In reality, Grindelwald is a rather large ski resort and there were gondolas and chair lifts that basically could have got me to the same place. So instead I decided to spend my day hiking in a more remote area not accessed by any kind of transportation. I also decided my pack was far too heavy to carry with me at this point. It had all of my camping gear (tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, stove and fuel, water filter, food for 4ish days, clothes and other misc. gear) and basically the food just made it too heavy. So I left most everything at camp and packed my pack with only necessary items for the day.
I started walking up the valley wall toward a small peak that I decided would be my destination for the day (it was steep but def. hikeable), but on my way I noticed a small trail that hugged the side of a cliff and then went into a broad canyon toward the top. The map I purchased labeled it as an alpine trail, meaning you needed special equipment (climbing or ice gear), but it looked do-able so I decided to give it a go. The trail was pretty crazy at spots; chains and cables were often bolted into the cliffside so you could hold on to it while you walked across the trail which at times may have only been a couple feet wide before dropping several hundred feet (and prob in some cases thousands) to the valley floor. Sorry mom, just ignore that part. At one point the trail actually went under/behind a waterfall because it had no where else to go! But all in all it was difficult but plenty safe without any gear.
As I started getting near the "top" and into the canyon, the landscape revealed a huge glacier funneling from the top of the peaks down through the canyon. It was like a huge frozen river carving it's way down. Huge waterfalls fell hundreds and hundreds of feet from the canyon walls down into the glacier, and you could see the deep ravines with hues of dark blue in the glacier itself. At one point, I heard what sounded like booming thunder that lasted much longer than I expected. After looking closely at the glacier, I saw tons of tumbling glacier that had broken off and was falling down the glacier. Throughout the day I witnessed this happening a few times, pretty crazy! The further and further I went into the canyon, the higher I got and the more the walls opened up. It was utterly amazing. At times I could turn around and look down thousands of feet at the now small village of Grindelwald. The trail actually led to a hikers hut, situated at 2529 meters (8297 feet) overlooking the glaciers and all the peaks (between 11,000 and 13,000 feet). It was about as high as you could possibly go in the area without climbing ice and cliffs. These huts are very common in the alps. I have no idea how they get all of the food and stuff to them, it must be by helicopter in most cases (I did notice some cables that went to some of the lower/closer huts).
Overall, the entire hike was absolutely beautiful and obviously I couldn't stop taking pictures. I was also amazed how few people I saw considering Grimmelwald sat so close (I hiked from the campsite/center of town). After going back down the trail, I decided to hike up toward where I was going to hike in the first place. I knew I would eventually hit a gondola which I received a 50% discount by using my rail pass. So when I did reach the gondola a couple hours later, I decided to cheat a bit and take it as high as it goes. The highest point it takes you too in called First. I'm not really sure why, but I guess the skiing is decent. Looking at the ski maps, however, there are only a few trails on this entire side of the valley and it seems like it would get quite boring pretty fast. My goal was to then hike to Bachsee (lake) which I had seen on many postcards in town, but it actually started raining and got suddenly cold, so I decided my day had been long enough. I spent some time on top before taking the gondola back down into town. Even the gondola ride was amazing though, and passed an amazing waterfall on it's way.
It was about 6pm, but I thought it best to pack up my stuff and take the train over to Lauterbrunnen so I could start my big hike as early as possible the next day. Once I arrived in Lauterbrunnen, I was blown away with what I saw. The village sits in a much narrower valley towered by massive peaks and a huge waterfall falling from the cliffs above down into town. It was absolutely amazing. I took the bus a couple miles to the end of the road to a very small town of Strechelberg where I camped for the night. It rained off and on during my train journey and that night, but it wasn't that big of a deal. The clouds did hide a lot of the upper peaks though which would have been nice to see more. It was nice staying at campgrounds the first couple nights because it meant I had warm water and real bathrooms with civilization nearby.
In the morning I was faced with the decision to hike over 2 hours up the valley wall to the small village of Gimmelwald where my backpacking journey really started, or take a scenic gondola to the top for free with my rail pass. I decided to take the gondola. :-) I had also eaten enough food at this point to make my pack weight manageable.
I had my route planned for what I thought would be the best part of the next two days. It was to hike from Gimmelwald two valleys south to the town of Kandersteg where I could catch the train back to Geneva. It went over the two highest passes (completely hikeable and glacier free this time of year) along the High Alpine Route of the alps. I figured I would hike both passes, find a place to camp near the top of the 2nd pass, and finish the hike to Kandersteg the next morning/afternoon.
I got to Gimmelwald and started my hike around 10am. Gimmelwald is another amazing place and sits much higher and closer to the peaks than all of the other towns I had been through. However, it is obviously not very accessible and thinking back, I don't think there were any cars in the village at all. In the pics, you'll see the massive peaks surrounding the region, including Jungfrau and the Eiger.
To be continued...
However, I do want to hear what you want to know about! When I write these posts, I leave so much out in the interest of space. So if there is stuff you want to know, just ask! I'll be happy to let you know or include the details in my posts. Thanks!
Swiss Videos
Hey kids!
As a preview to my Switzerland trip, I have posted four videos chronicling my hike over two of the Swiss Alps highest passes. There is a series of 4 videos and they can all be found on my new youtube site!!
http://www.youtube.com/bribergey
Take a look at the first in the series here and then watch the rest. Enjoy!!
As a preview to my Switzerland trip, I have posted four videos chronicling my hike over two of the Swiss Alps highest passes. There is a series of 4 videos and they can all be found on my new youtube site!!
http://www.youtube.com/bribergey
Take a look at the first in the series here and then watch the rest. Enjoy!!
7.25.2008
My Birthday, etc.
Hello! So most of my posts so far have basically been trip reports, so I thought I'd do something slightly different with this post. I know a lot of you are waiting to hear about my trip to Switzerland, but you're going to have to wait until this weekend when I'll have time to go through my 1036 pictures. Seriously.
Birthday Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bbergey/MyBirthday
So my birthday was great! It really started a day early, on Wednesday, when my co-workers and I went to Charlie Chinese for lunch, a China Buffet near work. Of course I ate far too much, but you all know how much I love a good china buffet. On Thursday, my co-workers brought in some proper english treats: Scones (biscuits), berries, clotted cream (basically butter), and some chocolates. It was great! After work we headed to our local favorite happy hour, and as of today our favorite lunch, spot and enjoyed some drinks amongst good camaraderie. haha Then Hayley and I headed toward Central London to meet up with my roommate, who shares the same bday, and her friends. We had a great time and it was complete with a stop at a Kebab stand on the walk home! Thanks to everyone here for celebrating my bday with me!
So I thought I would also write a little bit about how I'm doing in London and what I think about things. A lot of you have asked me random questions since I've been here, so I'll try to answer a lot of them for all of you.
Work: Work is going really well. It's busy, much busier than what I'm used to mostly because there is so many things to do. It's not just tech support, it's also sales and everything else that a normal office has to do. It's definitely different enough to make it fun and refreshing again. Hayley and I are really motivated to do well and we want to exceed all of our goals to show everyone what kind of job we can do. Let's hope it happens! We have moved into a bigger office in the same building and we have had one new intern start on the Active side of the business. She is an American from New Jersey!
Flat: I love my flatmates, although as can be expected we are rarely all home at the same time. We do get along well and we try to hang out once and a while. Marsha and I have been to a concert and we're going out to meet some of her friends this Saturday night. I find that my room is often a mess because it's just too small to be able to handle all my crap, especially after I get back from a trip. I pay 535 pounds per month, which is over $1000USD, and it includes all utilities including cable, internet and a landline that allows me to call landlines in the US for free. It's actually a really good deal for the area. Our flat is less than a 10 minute walk to the Thames river which is great because it has an endless path that follows it. I've been running along the river lately and it's been really nice!
Life: I joined a gym and I try to go quite often still. As always, it's hard to balance a healthy lifestyle and have fun socially, but I'm trying my best. I definitely feel the need to find some friends with more similar/active interests, so I'll probably try to stick around London a little more and see what I can do. I'm enjoying it here, especially the ability to travel and see new things. I do still feel like London is really overwhelming...basically it's just huge. I'm not sure I'm cut out for it indefinitely, but I'm enjoying it for the meantime and hopefully I'll be able to establish more of a real life here like I had back home.
Weather: Before this week, it's been colder than I had expected. The first month or so I was here it was really just perfect...around 20 (70 far.) every day and sunny. The problem is that it is often windy and therefore feels kinda cold, but still real nice in the sun. We had a pretty bad week or two when it got pretty cold (50s, maybe 60) with a lot of rain. This week it's been right around 80 and a little humid once and a while, so it actually feels like summer now! We've been getting out at lunch, walking down to the parks along the river and playing frisbee and stuff. There is also now almost a daily market in the square where I work which is nice.
Random Things:
- Just keep in mind that everything I write about regarding London is just about London. The rest of the UK is so different, as I'm sure you can imagine. It would be like someone living in New York and assuming the rest of the US is the same...as we all know it's certainly not. I have to admit that I prefer the areas I have been outside of London.
- It's really nice not having a car. I walk everywhere...to work, the gym, the store, to the tube station, etc. It makes things difficult sometimes when you want to buy a lot of groceries or whatever, but for the most part it's real nice not worrying about a car. Taking the bus is pretty cheap, but taking the tube places adds up pretty quick. On average I would say I spend about 5 pounds per week on public transportation. I only use it when I want to go to a shop that is further away, are going to a pub or somewhere further away, or am just getting out to sightsee and explore town. I do really need to get a cheap bike sometime.
- People here are familiar with miles and sometimes even lbs. They are not familiar with our normal units of measurements (specifically kitchen type measurements). When reading labels, everything is in grams and ml and other things I don't understand. I guess I need to start trying harder.
- I haven't really watched any TV. Sometimes I may turn it on and watch the UK Big Brother because it seems to be on all the time. Friends is also on a lot.
I'm sure there are a lot more, but I'm just not thinking of them right now. If any of you have specific questions or are wondering something just let me know!!
Birthday Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bbergey/MyBirthday
So my birthday was great! It really started a day early, on Wednesday, when my co-workers and I went to Charlie Chinese for lunch, a China Buffet near work. Of course I ate far too much, but you all know how much I love a good china buffet. On Thursday, my co-workers brought in some proper english treats: Scones (biscuits), berries, clotted cream (basically butter), and some chocolates. It was great! After work we headed to our local favorite happy hour, and as of today our favorite lunch, spot and enjoyed some drinks amongst good camaraderie. haha Then Hayley and I headed toward Central London to meet up with my roommate, who shares the same bday, and her friends. We had a great time and it was complete with a stop at a Kebab stand on the walk home! Thanks to everyone here for celebrating my bday with me!
So I thought I would also write a little bit about how I'm doing in London and what I think about things. A lot of you have asked me random questions since I've been here, so I'll try to answer a lot of them for all of you.
Work: Work is going really well. It's busy, much busier than what I'm used to mostly because there is so many things to do. It's not just tech support, it's also sales and everything else that a normal office has to do. It's definitely different enough to make it fun and refreshing again. Hayley and I are really motivated to do well and we want to exceed all of our goals to show everyone what kind of job we can do. Let's hope it happens! We have moved into a bigger office in the same building and we have had one new intern start on the Active side of the business. She is an American from New Jersey!
Flat: I love my flatmates, although as can be expected we are rarely all home at the same time. We do get along well and we try to hang out once and a while. Marsha and I have been to a concert and we're going out to meet some of her friends this Saturday night. I find that my room is often a mess because it's just too small to be able to handle all my crap, especially after I get back from a trip. I pay 535 pounds per month, which is over $1000USD, and it includes all utilities including cable, internet and a landline that allows me to call landlines in the US for free. It's actually a really good deal for the area. Our flat is less than a 10 minute walk to the Thames river which is great because it has an endless path that follows it. I've been running along the river lately and it's been really nice!
Life: I joined a gym and I try to go quite often still. As always, it's hard to balance a healthy lifestyle and have fun socially, but I'm trying my best. I definitely feel the need to find some friends with more similar/active interests, so I'll probably try to stick around London a little more and see what I can do. I'm enjoying it here, especially the ability to travel and see new things. I do still feel like London is really overwhelming...basically it's just huge. I'm not sure I'm cut out for it indefinitely, but I'm enjoying it for the meantime and hopefully I'll be able to establish more of a real life here like I had back home.
Weather: Before this week, it's been colder than I had expected. The first month or so I was here it was really just perfect...around 20 (70 far.) every day and sunny. The problem is that it is often windy and therefore feels kinda cold, but still real nice in the sun. We had a pretty bad week or two when it got pretty cold (50s, maybe 60) with a lot of rain. This week it's been right around 80 and a little humid once and a while, so it actually feels like summer now! We've been getting out at lunch, walking down to the parks along the river and playing frisbee and stuff. There is also now almost a daily market in the square where I work which is nice.
Random Things:
- Just keep in mind that everything I write about regarding London is just about London. The rest of the UK is so different, as I'm sure you can imagine. It would be like someone living in New York and assuming the rest of the US is the same...as we all know it's certainly not. I have to admit that I prefer the areas I have been outside of London.
- It's really nice not having a car. I walk everywhere...to work, the gym, the store, to the tube station, etc. It makes things difficult sometimes when you want to buy a lot of groceries or whatever, but for the most part it's real nice not worrying about a car. Taking the bus is pretty cheap, but taking the tube places adds up pretty quick. On average I would say I spend about 5 pounds per week on public transportation. I only use it when I want to go to a shop that is further away, are going to a pub or somewhere further away, or am just getting out to sightsee and explore town. I do really need to get a cheap bike sometime.
- People here are familiar with miles and sometimes even lbs. They are not familiar with our normal units of measurements (specifically kitchen type measurements). When reading labels, everything is in grams and ml and other things I don't understand. I guess I need to start trying harder.
- I haven't really watched any TV. Sometimes I may turn it on and watch the UK Big Brother because it seems to be on all the time. Friends is also on a lot.
I'm sure there are a lot more, but I'm just not thinking of them right now. If any of you have specific questions or are wondering something just let me know!!
7.14.2008
Lake District National Park
Yet again, take a look at the pics that go with this post at: http://picasaweb.google.com/bbergey/TheLakeDistrict
Last weekend I decided to set off on my newest adventure up north to The Lake District National Park. The weather had been complete rubbish in London all week and I almost decided not to go, plus I didn't have a train ticket or anything planned out, but decided I'd better go anyway. I left work a little early on Friday, rushed home to grab my prepared backpack and got to the train station to buy my ticket. I was then on a 4 hour train ride to the small town of Windermere. I have to admit that it's pretty embarrassing walking and taking the tube through London during rush hour in hiking clothes with a huge backpack...tent, trekking poles and all! It's also real hard not having the luxury of a car when hiking to have a place to put "normal" clothes and conveniences you want to take with you but don't want to carry while hiking (like jeans).
Windermere is about 220 miles northwest of London near the coast. On the first leg of my journey, I sat next to a very nice old man who talked to me quite a bit, mostly about his favorite places in the UK - primarily Scotland. I also used the time to look at the mess of bus schedules and trail options I printed. After about 3.5 hours I had to switch trains to get to my destination. On this smaller train, I looked across and saw a girl wearing a Michigan State cross country jacket. I asked her if she went there and she said she did and ran cross country. We then discovered that she knows and ran with Liz! Sarah is now living with her grandpa in Windermere until she finds a job where she would like to move in Sheffield. We exchanged numbers and there is more to come about her a bit later in the post.
Windermere is just up the banks of the largest lake in England, Lake Windermere. I believe it is approx. 10.5 miles long and sits at the foot of the mountains of the national park. Since it was after 10pm, I got a taxi up the road about 2 miles to the Hostel for the night. I met a guy and his wife staying in the hostel who had a Leadville, CO shirt on and came to find out that he travels quite a bit for work and runs a lot of ultra mountain races. He ran one in Leadville (but not the famous 100) and also hiked Mt. Elbert. He gave me a book that he was reading about a poet who spent his life hiking in the Lake District. I need to post it back to him.
In the morning, I quickly filled up on the hostel provided breakfast and caught the bus another 10 miles up the road through Ambleside to the trailhead I chose where an old farm and the Old Dungeon Gyll Hotel sits. I met a very nice, yet flustered, old lady on the bus whose husband died 4 years ago. She was going to hike to the place where his ashes were spread. From here I started my hike for the day which included 3 summits and probably around 10 miles.
The peaks of the Lake District are pretty impressive. Once you are in them, they are very rugged and scenic and it amazed me how similar the landscape looked to the Rockies. The peaks are all about 3000 feet high, but when you take into consideration that the trailhead is basically at sea level, that's a decent ascent. These are the highest peaks in England, and Scotland only has one peak higher. The peaks I summited on Saturday, in order, were Crinkle Crags, Bow Fell and Esk Pike. It was incredibly green and there was endless amounts of water rushing down the mountains creating deep gorges and waterfalls along the way. The weather was decent - it didn't rain which is all that can really be asked. Saturday was partly sunny which made for some neat pics but it was real cold and windy on the ridges and summits. Sunday was calmer but pretty cloudy up top, in fact I was in the clouds at some points. Unfortunately the cold temp drained my camera batteries, so I was squeezing every last ounce of energy I could from the 6 batteries I brought.
After hiking all day on Saturday, and being quite cold, I was looking forward to a nice hot meal at camp. I found an amazing lake (tarn) called Sprinkling Tarn and set up camp there. I finally got the stove out to prepare dinner and it wouldn't start. Now obviously I should have tested this out before I left since it hadn't been used since last fall, but I didn't. I hadn't even thought that the fuel I purchased at an outdoor shop earlier in the week wasn't usable by my stove. I believe this fuel was alcohol based and it needs to use white gas, which I don't think they really have in the US. This week I'll be researching where I can find this type of fuel (if I can) or if I just need to buy a whole new stove. Unfortunately I was stuck eating cold oatmeal with dried fruit and almonds and energy bars vs. my rice and hot cocoa. Same in the morning. It wasn't bad, but wasn't what I was hoping. It was quite cold that night and although it didn't hit freezing, I'm sure it was close.
On Sunday I got up and summited the tallest mountain in England before I hiked out. Scaffel Pike is 3209 feet high and I was sitting in fog/clouds almost the entire time I was up top. It was also quite strenuous hiking up and it reminded me of the Boulderfield and even parts of the Trough of Colorado's Longs Peak. I met a man on top who took a ski trip to Colorado a few years ago and loved it!
I was able to hike back to the trailhead using a different route, which made the whole trip one big loop that I'm guessing probably covered about 17-20 miles. That's a pretty big guesstimate though, pretty much just based on the time it took. I changed clothes and got a sandwich at the old hotel's hiker bar and waited for the next bus to come to take me back to Ambleside.
Ambleside reminded me a little bit of Estes Park in that it is one of the main gateway towns into the national park. However, it was incredibly beautiful and quaint (although busy) and had tons of outdoor shops that I wish I could have explored more. I had to catch the bus back to Windermere which got me back a couple hours before my train left, so I gave Sarah a call and she showed me around town and a short hike up Orrest Head with amazing views of the lake and the countryside. She also showed me her grandpa's 100 year old house that sits on acres of an amazing garden he somehow keeps up. I'm still shocked how much work it must take to do what he does, the garden was huge and was as nice as a garden you'd pay admission to see! She also fed me a bunch of her grandpa's food. Having just moved to the UK, she is also looking for people to hike and travel with so hopefully we'll get a chance to do some stuff together soon!
Overall, it was the best trip I've taken so far and I'm so glad I decided to go. After my birthday this week, I'm taking of to the Alps of Switzerland for 5 days. Don't worry, I got my a 4GB memory card for my camera so there will be no shortage of pics.
Last weekend I decided to set off on my newest adventure up north to The Lake District National Park. The weather had been complete rubbish in London all week and I almost decided not to go, plus I didn't have a train ticket or anything planned out, but decided I'd better go anyway. I left work a little early on Friday, rushed home to grab my prepared backpack and got to the train station to buy my ticket. I was then on a 4 hour train ride to the small town of Windermere. I have to admit that it's pretty embarrassing walking and taking the tube through London during rush hour in hiking clothes with a huge backpack...tent, trekking poles and all! It's also real hard not having the luxury of a car when hiking to have a place to put "normal" clothes and conveniences you want to take with you but don't want to carry while hiking (like jeans).
Windermere is about 220 miles northwest of London near the coast. On the first leg of my journey, I sat next to a very nice old man who talked to me quite a bit, mostly about his favorite places in the UK - primarily Scotland. I also used the time to look at the mess of bus schedules and trail options I printed. After about 3.5 hours I had to switch trains to get to my destination. On this smaller train, I looked across and saw a girl wearing a Michigan State cross country jacket. I asked her if she went there and she said she did and ran cross country. We then discovered that she knows and ran with Liz! Sarah is now living with her grandpa in Windermere until she finds a job where she would like to move in Sheffield. We exchanged numbers and there is more to come about her a bit later in the post.
Windermere is just up the banks of the largest lake in England, Lake Windermere. I believe it is approx. 10.5 miles long and sits at the foot of the mountains of the national park. Since it was after 10pm, I got a taxi up the road about 2 miles to the Hostel for the night. I met a guy and his wife staying in the hostel who had a Leadville, CO shirt on and came to find out that he travels quite a bit for work and runs a lot of ultra mountain races. He ran one in Leadville (but not the famous 100) and also hiked Mt. Elbert. He gave me a book that he was reading about a poet who spent his life hiking in the Lake District. I need to post it back to him.
In the morning, I quickly filled up on the hostel provided breakfast and caught the bus another 10 miles up the road through Ambleside to the trailhead I chose where an old farm and the Old Dungeon Gyll Hotel sits. I met a very nice, yet flustered, old lady on the bus whose husband died 4 years ago. She was going to hike to the place where his ashes were spread. From here I started my hike for the day which included 3 summits and probably around 10 miles.
The peaks of the Lake District are pretty impressive. Once you are in them, they are very rugged and scenic and it amazed me how similar the landscape looked to the Rockies. The peaks are all about 3000 feet high, but when you take into consideration that the trailhead is basically at sea level, that's a decent ascent. These are the highest peaks in England, and Scotland only has one peak higher. The peaks I summited on Saturday, in order, were Crinkle Crags, Bow Fell and Esk Pike. It was incredibly green and there was endless amounts of water rushing down the mountains creating deep gorges and waterfalls along the way. The weather was decent - it didn't rain which is all that can really be asked. Saturday was partly sunny which made for some neat pics but it was real cold and windy on the ridges and summits. Sunday was calmer but pretty cloudy up top, in fact I was in the clouds at some points. Unfortunately the cold temp drained my camera batteries, so I was squeezing every last ounce of energy I could from the 6 batteries I brought.
After hiking all day on Saturday, and being quite cold, I was looking forward to a nice hot meal at camp. I found an amazing lake (tarn) called Sprinkling Tarn and set up camp there. I finally got the stove out to prepare dinner and it wouldn't start. Now obviously I should have tested this out before I left since it hadn't been used since last fall, but I didn't. I hadn't even thought that the fuel I purchased at an outdoor shop earlier in the week wasn't usable by my stove. I believe this fuel was alcohol based and it needs to use white gas, which I don't think they really have in the US. This week I'll be researching where I can find this type of fuel (if I can) or if I just need to buy a whole new stove. Unfortunately I was stuck eating cold oatmeal with dried fruit and almonds and energy bars vs. my rice and hot cocoa. Same in the morning. It wasn't bad, but wasn't what I was hoping. It was quite cold that night and although it didn't hit freezing, I'm sure it was close.
On Sunday I got up and summited the tallest mountain in England before I hiked out. Scaffel Pike is 3209 feet high and I was sitting in fog/clouds almost the entire time I was up top. It was also quite strenuous hiking up and it reminded me of the Boulderfield and even parts of the Trough of Colorado's Longs Peak. I met a man on top who took a ski trip to Colorado a few years ago and loved it!
I was able to hike back to the trailhead using a different route, which made the whole trip one big loop that I'm guessing probably covered about 17-20 miles. That's a pretty big guesstimate though, pretty much just based on the time it took. I changed clothes and got a sandwich at the old hotel's hiker bar and waited for the next bus to come to take me back to Ambleside.
Ambleside reminded me a little bit of Estes Park in that it is one of the main gateway towns into the national park. However, it was incredibly beautiful and quaint (although busy) and had tons of outdoor shops that I wish I could have explored more. I had to catch the bus back to Windermere which got me back a couple hours before my train left, so I gave Sarah a call and she showed me around town and a short hike up Orrest Head with amazing views of the lake and the countryside. She also showed me her grandpa's 100 year old house that sits on acres of an amazing garden he somehow keeps up. I'm still shocked how much work it must take to do what he does, the garden was huge and was as nice as a garden you'd pay admission to see! She also fed me a bunch of her grandpa's food. Having just moved to the UK, she is also looking for people to hike and travel with so hopefully we'll get a chance to do some stuff together soon!
Overall, it was the best trip I've taken so far and I'm so glad I decided to go. After my birthday this week, I'm taking of to the Alps of Switzerland for 5 days. Don't worry, I got my a 4GB memory card for my camera so there will be no shortage of pics.
7.09.2008
Tidbits from my day
Two posts in two days. I know, shocking! I just had a couple things I felt like sharing with people but no one else is in the office this morning so I figured I would write to all of you.
First, last night my French flatmate (Saundrine) and I realized that we share the same birthday. The EXACT same birthday, including year. How crazy! Needless to say, we'll be celebrating next Thursday (the 17th by the way). If you would like my mailing address to shower me with extravagant gifts and money, just let me know!
Also, I got this email from a customer I've been working with: "By the way, I like your voice! very attractive. :-)"
Yep, that's right.
First, last night my French flatmate (Saundrine) and I realized that we share the same birthday. The EXACT same birthday, including year. How crazy! Needless to say, we'll be celebrating next Thursday (the 17th by the way). If you would like my mailing address to shower me with extravagant gifts and money, just let me know!
Also, I got this email from a customer I've been working with: "By the way, I like your voice! very attractive. :-)"
Yep, that's right.
7.07.2008
Kate, Cobblestone and Counting Crows
Hello! As always, you can follow along with my pics here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/TheCity
I had another pretty eventful weekend, although obviously the Brits don't celebrate the 4th of July. So I had to work on the 4th itself, but I won't complain since we get many more bank holidays throughout the year.
My old roommate in Boulder, Kate, was in town for a quick break from her Peace Corps duties in Africa. She was meeting her parents, 2 brothers, and a couple other friends in London before they went off to explore other areas of the UK. I met up with her and her family Thursday and Friday after work which was great! I joined them for dinner both nights, at very nice resturaunts I should add, and her parents paid the bill which was extremely generous of them. I think Kate said that they figured out that it would cost 2 months of her salary in Africa to stay in their hotel in London for one night. Yikes! On my way back from dinner on Friday night (around midnight), I got on a bus and started feeling pretty good about myself and my ability to get myself around on my own. I got on a bus and knew where it was going and knew I could walk home from it's destination since I had done it before. But I was wrong. Two hours later, I was still walking around trying to get home. It ends up that if I had just walked five minutes further than where I had been an hour earlier, I would have known exactly where I was, but instead I got home at 2am absolutely beat. Oh well, now I know!
On Saturday I decided to do a bit more exploring around the city. I took the tube down to what's called "The City" and set off by foot. I immediately noticed that I was pretty tired from my 83 mile random walk the night before (yes, that's a bit of an exaggeration). The city is one of the oldest parts of London. I believe it's where London actually started and it is still pretty much considered the heart of the city, although it has spread so much that in my opinion the heart takes up all of the areas around The City as well. The neat, but strange, part about most of this area is that on a weekend it was rather dead. A lot of people work here, but not necessarily live in the area. So the streets were real quiet and a lot of the shops and resturaunts weren't even open! This part of town is really strange as it is a fascinating mix of very very old in a very modern setting. Many of the sidestreets and allyways are satill made of coblestone. And once you know what to look for, you start to realize that many years ago this place was very different.
My first sighting was The Royal Courts of Justice. I think this is where you can still go to watch trails and heare the boos and hisses from the crowd. Definitely something to experience at some point. As I meandered through the streets, I made my way to St. Paul's Cathedral. The church itself is massive and pristine. I was too late to get the tour, but the view from the top looked like it would be great! Just across from the cathedral is the Millenium Bridge. I have no idea what the signifance of this bridge is, but it is a foot bridge across the Thames River to the south bank. On my way down river, I made sure to check out a number of areas that showcased the London Wall. This is a defensive wall the Romans built around 200AD. Apparently the wall completely dissapeared over time and more recently has started showing itself again. You can see in the pictures that there are random pieces of the wall and rubble left surrounded by modern buildings and museums. It's really cool to come across.
Finally I made my way down to the London Monument, the London Tower and the Tower Bridge. The Tower (a really old castle of sorts) sits right on the river and I think was protected by the Wall, along with it's mote and other defensive forces. The Tower is really cool and completely random to come across in the middle of a big city. Again, I was too late to actually go inside but it looked like it would be fun. Apparently the castle burned down at some point (how does stone burn???) and was rebuilt a few hundred years ago. To me, the Tower Bridge is a very iconic signature of London. See for yourself in the pics!
On Sunday I went to the o2 Wireless Music Festival in Hyde Park. I managed to get tickets online to the sold out concert; Sunday was the final day of the 4 day festival which had 4 stages and tons of bands each day. The main stage on Sunday hosted the following artists that I saw: Goo Goo Dolls, Powderfinger, Ben Harper, and Counting Crows. Earlier in the day I walked around to the small stages and listened to some local acts that were great! The highlight, however, was definitely Counting Crows. I have always wanted to see them live and they did live up to my expectations. Great performers and they made their well known music unique and lively. It was great!
Of course it's not a true Brian blog post without some mention of food. At the concert, I was given a free lunch voucher for texting a number, so of course I did it! I decided against the traditional festival fare of burgers, chinese/thai/noodles, or hot dogs and got something different and local...a meat pie. It's basically a pot pie with different fillings; mine had lamb, potatoes, peas, seasonings and maybe some other stuff I'm forgetting. Then they slop on a huge spoonfull of mashed potatoes (mash) and mashed peas and then gravy. I didn't get any gravy, but as you can see in the pic, I did replace it with ketchup. I'm not sure it's possible, but the English may like ketchup even more than Americans. That together with a love for mash, sausages and meat, how can one go wrong?!
On Monday I started getting a taste of true London weather. When I left work it was 13 degrees and raining, and it had been raining pretty much all day. The forecast shows this type of weather all week. Great. On Wednesday my flatmate and I are going to a concert nearby to see Band of Horses. I'm really excited to check out a local venue, especially this one because I've noticed that there are a number of great shows coming up. More on this later.
Also, where will Brian decide to go this weekend? He is definitely thinking of leaving London. We shall see... And what about the weekend after, which would be his Birthday weekend...
Oh, the suspense.
I had another pretty eventful weekend, although obviously the Brits don't celebrate the 4th of July. So I had to work on the 4th itself, but I won't complain since we get many more bank holidays throughout the year.
My old roommate in Boulder, Kate, was in town for a quick break from her Peace Corps duties in Africa. She was meeting her parents, 2 brothers, and a couple other friends in London before they went off to explore other areas of the UK. I met up with her and her family Thursday and Friday after work which was great! I joined them for dinner both nights, at very nice resturaunts I should add, and her parents paid the bill which was extremely generous of them. I think Kate said that they figured out that it would cost 2 months of her salary in Africa to stay in their hotel in London for one night. Yikes! On my way back from dinner on Friday night (around midnight), I got on a bus and started feeling pretty good about myself and my ability to get myself around on my own. I got on a bus and knew where it was going and knew I could walk home from it's destination since I had done it before. But I was wrong. Two hours later, I was still walking around trying to get home. It ends up that if I had just walked five minutes further than where I had been an hour earlier, I would have known exactly where I was, but instead I got home at 2am absolutely beat. Oh well, now I know!
On Saturday I decided to do a bit more exploring around the city. I took the tube down to what's called "The City" and set off by foot. I immediately noticed that I was pretty tired from my 83 mile random walk the night before (yes, that's a bit of an exaggeration). The city is one of the oldest parts of London. I believe it's where London actually started and it is still pretty much considered the heart of the city, although it has spread so much that in my opinion the heart takes up all of the areas around The City as well. The neat, but strange, part about most of this area is that on a weekend it was rather dead. A lot of people work here, but not necessarily live in the area. So the streets were real quiet and a lot of the shops and resturaunts weren't even open! This part of town is really strange as it is a fascinating mix of very very old in a very modern setting. Many of the sidestreets and allyways are satill made of coblestone. And once you know what to look for, you start to realize that many years ago this place was very different.
My first sighting was The Royal Courts of Justice. I think this is where you can still go to watch trails and heare the boos and hisses from the crowd. Definitely something to experience at some point. As I meandered through the streets, I made my way to St. Paul's Cathedral. The church itself is massive and pristine. I was too late to get the tour, but the view from the top looked like it would be great! Just across from the cathedral is the Millenium Bridge. I have no idea what the signifance of this bridge is, but it is a foot bridge across the Thames River to the south bank. On my way down river, I made sure to check out a number of areas that showcased the London Wall. This is a defensive wall the Romans built around 200AD. Apparently the wall completely dissapeared over time and more recently has started showing itself again. You can see in the pictures that there are random pieces of the wall and rubble left surrounded by modern buildings and museums. It's really cool to come across.
Finally I made my way down to the London Monument, the London Tower and the Tower Bridge. The Tower (a really old castle of sorts) sits right on the river and I think was protected by the Wall, along with it's mote and other defensive forces. The Tower is really cool and completely random to come across in the middle of a big city. Again, I was too late to actually go inside but it looked like it would be fun. Apparently the castle burned down at some point (how does stone burn???) and was rebuilt a few hundred years ago. To me, the Tower Bridge is a very iconic signature of London. See for yourself in the pics!
On Sunday I went to the o2 Wireless Music Festival in Hyde Park. I managed to get tickets online to the sold out concert; Sunday was the final day of the 4 day festival which had 4 stages and tons of bands each day. The main stage on Sunday hosted the following artists that I saw: Goo Goo Dolls, Powderfinger, Ben Harper, and Counting Crows. Earlier in the day I walked around to the small stages and listened to some local acts that were great! The highlight, however, was definitely Counting Crows. I have always wanted to see them live and they did live up to my expectations. Great performers and they made their well known music unique and lively. It was great!
Of course it's not a true Brian blog post without some mention of food. At the concert, I was given a free lunch voucher for texting a number, so of course I did it! I decided against the traditional festival fare of burgers, chinese/thai/noodles, or hot dogs and got something different and local...a meat pie. It's basically a pot pie with different fillings; mine had lamb, potatoes, peas, seasonings and maybe some other stuff I'm forgetting. Then they slop on a huge spoonfull of mashed potatoes (mash) and mashed peas and then gravy. I didn't get any gravy, but as you can see in the pic, I did replace it with ketchup. I'm not sure it's possible, but the English may like ketchup even more than Americans. That together with a love for mash, sausages and meat, how can one go wrong?!
On Monday I started getting a taste of true London weather. When I left work it was 13 degrees and raining, and it had been raining pretty much all day. The forecast shows this type of weather all week. Great. On Wednesday my flatmate and I are going to a concert nearby to see Band of Horses. I'm really excited to check out a local venue, especially this one because I've noticed that there are a number of great shows coming up. More on this later.
Also, where will Brian decide to go this weekend? He is definitely thinking of leaving London. We shall see... And what about the weekend after, which would be his Birthday weekend...
Oh, the suspense.
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